130 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xii. 



tremendously severe ice age of which we have evidence 

 is the utmost that can possibly occur; and, on the other 

 hand, we may anticipate that the condition of things 

 which in earlier geological times rendered even the polar 

 regions adapted for a luxuriant woody vegetation may 

 again recur, and thus vastly extend the area of our globe 

 which is adapted to support human life in abundance and 

 comfort. In the endeavor to account for the change of 

 climate and of physical geography which brought about 

 so vast a change, and then, after a period certainly ap- 

 proaching, and perhaps greatly exceeding, a hundred 

 thousand years, caused it to pass away, some of the most 

 acute and powerful intellects of our day have exerted 

 their ingenuity; but, so far as obtaining general accept- 

 ance for the views of any one of them, altogether in vain. 

 There seems reason to believe, however, that the problem 

 is not an insoluble one; and when the true cause is 

 reached, it will probably carry with it the long-sought 

 datum from which to calculate with some rough degree 

 of accuracy the duration of geological periods. But, 

 whether we can solve the problem of its cause or no, the 

 demonstration of the recent occurrence of a Glacial 

 Epoch or Great Ice Age, with the determination of its 

 main features over the Northern Hemisphere, will ever 

 rank as one of the great scientific achievements of the 

 nineteenth century. 



The Antiquity of Man. 



Following the general acceptance of a glacial epoch 

 by about twenty years, but to some extent connected 

 with it, came the recognition that man had existed in 

 Northern Europe along with numerous animals which 



